Benjamin Netanyahu: Israel to retain key West Bank settlement in any peace deal

[toomuchtime_]

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Friday that Israel would retain control of a large West Bank settlement under any future arrangement with the Palestinians.

During a tree-planting ceremony in the northern West Bank settlement of Ariel on Friday, Netanyahu reaffirmed the town's historic and strategic significance.

"Anyone who understands the geography of the Land of Israel knows how important Ariel is," Netanyahu said. "The settlement enterprise here is the heart of our land."

"Here is where our forefathers dwelled and here is where we will stay and build," the prime minister said. "We want to strengthen the peace and co-existence with our neighbors but this will not stop us from continuing with our lives here, where we'll continue to plant trees and to build."

"Ariel, the capital of Samaria (the northern West Bank), will be an integral, inseparable part of the state of Israel in any future arrangement," Netanyahu said.

Benjamin Netanyahu: Israel to retain key West Bank settlement in any peace deal - Haaretz - Israel News

 

[Shogun]

what?!? Bibi acts like a fat kid diving into his own cake at a birthday party? HOLY SHIT! Say. It. Ain't. So!

 

[Marc39]

what?!? Bibi acts like a fat kid diving into his own cake at a birthday party? HOLY SHIT! Say. It. Ain't. So!

The West Bank is sovereign Israeli territory, historically and legally.

Arab land is in the rest of the shithole Middle East.

 

[jillian]

what?!? Bibi acts like a fat kid diving into his own cake at a birthday party? HOLY SHIT! Say. It. Ain't. So!

you know, shogie, i did a divorce once for a really good guy. he made a great settlement offer to his wife....way more than she could have gotten from the court. his wife hired some jerk who turned it down and dismissed it out of hand. so we lowered the offer... she turned it down again. we lowered the offer again. this happened a couple of more times until she fired the jerk she had hired and got decent representation. we made a deal...


and she got half of what she was offered in the first place.

following?

 

[Shogun]

maybe you should have skipped any kind of amicable process and just insisted that wife wanted to kill husbands while preaching that ex wives are born trying to kill husbands as if this validates generalizing wives.

YOU following?

It's nice to see your standard of equality being weighed down by your connection with those who run the plantation though.

 

[Marc39]

maybe you should have skipped any kind of amicable process and just insisted that wife wanted to kill husbands while preaching that ex wives are born trying to kill husbands as if this validates generalizing wives.

YOU following?

It's nice to see your standard of equality being weighed down by your connection with those who run the plantation though.

What do you care about amicable processes? In Islamic law, it's perfectly ok to beat your Muslima wife. If you behead the *****, you get your hand slapped.

 

[P F Tinmore]

maybe you should have skipped any kind of amicable process and just insisted that wife wanted to kill husbands while preaching that ex wives are born trying to kill husbands as if this validates generalizing wives.

YOU following?

It's nice to see your standard of equality being weighed down by your connection with those who run the plantation though.

What do you care about amicable processes? In Islamic law, it's perfectly ok to beat your Muslima wife. If you behead the *****, you get your hand slapped.

Why do you keep bringing up Muslims? This is not a religious conflict. Palestinian Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike did not want to see the creation of Israel.

 

[Marc39]

maybe you should have skipped any kind of amicable process and just insisted that wife wanted to kill husbands while preaching that ex wives are born trying to kill husbands as if this validates generalizing wives.

YOU following?

It's nice to see your standard of equality being weighed down by your connection with those who run the plantation though.

What do you care about amicable processes? In Islamic law, it's perfectly ok to beat your Muslima wife. If you behead the *****, you get your hand slapped.

Why do you keep bringing up Muslims? This is not a religious conflict. Palestinian Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike did not want to see the creation of Israel.

Most of the international community wanted to see the creation of Israel. Israel is one of few countries with both League of Nations and UN endorsements for statehood. US support for Israeli statehood reflected an abundance of Jewish support.

I can out-debate you in my sleep. Then, again, you're a ******* retard.

 

[P F Tinmore]

What do you care about amicable processes? In Islamic law, it's perfectly ok to beat your Muslima wife. If you behead the *****, you get your hand slapped.

Why do you keep bringing up Muslims? This is not a religious conflict. Palestinian Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike did not want to see the creation of Israel.

Most of the international community wanted to see the creation of Israel. Israel is one of few countries with both League of Nations and UN endorsements for statehood. US support for Israeli statehood reflected an abundance of Jewish support.

I can out-debate you in my sleep. Then, again, you're a ******* retard.

The opinions of outsiders don't mean chit. Palestinian Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike did not want to see the creation of Israel. Nothing else matters.

 

[Marc39]

Why do you keep bringing up Muslims? This is not a religious conflict. Palestinian Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike did not want to see the creation of Israel.

Most of the international community wanted to see the creation of Israel. Israel is one of few countries with both League of Nations and UN endorsements for statehood. US support for Israeli statehood reflected an abundance of Jewish support.

I can out-debate you in my sleep. Then, again, you're a ******* retard.

The opinions of outsiders don't mean chit. Palestinian Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike did not want to see the creation of Israel. Nothing else matters.

Palestinians are the ultimate outsiders. Most Pestilians migrated from north Africa and Egypt, which is why so many Pallies are named al-Masri (The Egyptian) and Maghrebi, as in Maghreb, Africa.

Arabs, in general, migrated from the Hijaz in the 7th century.

You know shit about the subject matter.

 

[P F Tinmore]

Most of the international community wanted to see the creation of Israel. Israel is one of few countries with both League of Nations and UN endorsements for statehood. US support for Israeli statehood reflected an abundance of Jewish support.

I can out-debate you in my sleep. Then, again, you're a ******* retard.

The opinions of outsiders don't mean chit. Palestinian Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike did not want to see the creation of Israel. Nothing else matters.

Palestinians are the ultimate outsiders. Most Pestilians migrated from north Africa and Egypt, which is why so many Pallies are named al-Masri (The Egyptian) and Maghrebi, as in Maghreb, Africa.

Arabs, in general, migrated from the Hijaz in the 7th century.

You know shit about the subject matter.

My grandparents were from Scotland and Germany. Does that mean I am not American?

 

[Shogun]

maybe you should have skipped any kind of amicable process and just insisted that wife wanted to kill husbands while preaching that ex wives are born trying to kill husbands as if this validates generalizing wives.

YOU following?

It's nice to see your standard of equality being weighed down by your connection with those who run the plantation though.

What do you care about amicable processes? In Islamic law, it's perfectly ok to beat your Muslima wife. If you behead the *****, you get your hand slapped.

hey look! you are no better than those who disregarded your kind because they were CONVINCED that you drank goyim blood in your matzo soup.




*yawn*

 

[Shogun]

Most of the international community wanted to see the creation of Israel. Israel is one of few countries with both League of Nations and UN endorsements for statehood. US support for Israeli statehood reflected an abundance of Jewish support.

I can out-debate you in my sleep. Then, again, you're a ******* retard.

The opinions of outsiders don't mean chit. Palestinian Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike did not want to see the creation of Israel. Nothing else matters.

Palestinians are the ultimate outsiders. Most Pestilians migrated from north Africa and Egypt, which is why so many Pallies are named al-Masri (The Egyptian) and Maghrebi, as in Maghreb, Africa.

Arabs, in general, migrated from the Hijaz in the 7th century.

You know shit about the subject matter.

...says the jew whose sole input reads like the sacking of Canaan 2010.

Talk about outsiders some more while importing more jews to stack the demographics, cock lips..

 

[Marc39]

The opinions of outsiders don't mean chit. Palestinian Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike did not want to see the creation of Israel. Nothing else matters.

Palestinians are the ultimate outsiders. Most Pestilians migrated from north Africa and Egypt, which is why so many Pallies are named al-Masri (The Egyptian) and Maghrebi, as in Maghreb, Africa.

Arabs, in general, migrated from the Hijaz in the 7th century.

You know shit about the subject matter.

...says the jew whose sole input reads like the sacking of Canaan 2010.

Talk about outsiders some more while importing more jews to stack the demographics, cock lips..

Hey, the Jews class up the otherwise dicrepid Middle East that the sand rats shit all over.

 

[P F Tinmore]

Palestinians are the ultimate outsiders. Most Pestilians migrated from north Africa and Egypt, which is why so many Pallies are named al-Masri (The Egyptian) and Maghrebi, as in Maghreb, Africa.

Arabs, in general, migrated from the Hijaz in the 7th century.

You know shit about the subject matter.

...says the jew whose sole input reads like the sacking of Canaan 2010.

Talk about outsiders some more while importing more jews to stack the demographics, cock lips..

Hey, the Jews class up the otherwise dicrepid Middle East that the sand rats shit all over.

Palestine was self sufficient before Israel. Now we have two entities on welfare. Yeah, that is classing up alright. Oh yeah, there used to be peace also.

 

[Marc39]

...says the jew whose sole input reads like the sacking of Canaan 2010.

Talk about outsiders some more while importing more jews to stack the demographics, cock lips..

Hey, the Jews class up the otherwise dicrepid Middle East that the sand rats shit all over.

Palestine was self sufficient before Israel. Now we have two entities on welfare. Yeah, that is classing up alright. Oh yeah, there used to be peace also.

Er, no. You know less than zero. You are a pathetic embarrassment.

Palestine, pre-Israel was an impoverished stinkhole. Palestine had been ravaged by invasions and war, particularly World War I, disease, such as the Black Plague, and lack of an economic infrastructure. Visitors chronicled the area as so poor and desolate, Bedouins were seen eating grass alongside their goats.

It wasn't until Jewish immigrants arrived with capital and characteristic industriousness that Palestine became a thriving community. The Jews renewed the land, dredged the swamps and established a busness network, turning desert into orange groves. Arabs reaped financial rewards in selling their land holdings to Jews.

The Peel Report presented to the British Cabinet acknowledges the transformation of Palestine as a result of Jewish efforts...

The Arab population shows a remarkable increase since 1920, and it has had some share in the increased prosperity of Palestine. Many Arab landowners have benefited from the sale of land and the profitable investment of the purchase money. The fellaheen are better off on the whole than they were in 1920. This Arab progress has been partly due to the import of Jewish capital into Palestine and other factors associated with the growth of the National Home. In particular, the Arabs have benefited from social services which could not have been provided on the existing scale without the revenue obtained from the Jews.

The shortage of land is due less to purchase by Jews than to the increase in the Arab population. The Arab claims that the Jews have obtained too large a proportion of good land cannot be maintained. Much of the land now carrying orange groves was sand dunes or swamps and uncultivated when it was bought.

The Jews have purchased substantial blocks of land in the Gaza Plain and near Beersheba and obtained options for the purchase of other blocks in this area. The proposed frontier would prevent the utilization of those lands for the southward expansion of the Jewish National Home. On the other hand, the Jewish lands in Galilee, and in particular the Huleh basin (which offers a notable opportunity for development and colonization), would be in the Jewish Area.

The Jews contribute more per capita to the revenues of Palestine than the Arabs, and the Government has thereby been enabled to maintain public services for the Arabs at a higher level than would otherwise have been possible.

 

[P F Tinmore]

In 1615 the English traveler George Sandys described Palestine as "a land that flows with milk and honey; in the midst as it were of the habitable world, and under a temperate clime; adorned with beautiful mountains and luxurious valleys; the rocks producing excellent waters; and no part empty of delight or profit."(4)

A British missionary who lived in Beirut and visited Palestine in 1859 described the southern coastal area as "a very ocean of wheat," and the British Consul in Jerusalem, James Finn, reported that "the fields would do credit to British farming."(5)

The German geographer Alexander Scholch concluded that between 1856 and 1882 "Palestine produced a relatively large agricultural surplus which was marketed in neighboring countries, such as Egypt and Lebanon, and increasingly exported to Europe. These exports included wheat, barley, dura, maise, sesame, olive oil, soap, oranges, vegetables and cotton. Among the European importers of Palestinian produce were France, England, Turkey, Greece, Italy and Malta."(6)

Lawrence Oliphant, who visited Palestine in 1887, wrote that Palestine's Valley of Esdraelon was "a huge green lake of waving wheat, with its village-crowned mounds rising from it like islands; and it presents one of the most striking pictures of luxuriant fertility which it is possible to conceive."(7) This Palestinian wheat had historically played an important part in international commerce. According to Paul Masson, a French economic historian, "wheat shipments from the Palestinian port of Acre had helped to save southern France from famine on numerous occasions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries."(8)

Agricultural techniques in Palestine, especially in citriculture, were among the most advanced in the world long before the first Zionist settlers came to its shores. In 1856, the American consul in Jerusalem, Henry Gillman, "outlined reasons why orange growers in Florida would find it advantageous to adopt Palestinian techniques of grafting directly onto lemon trees."^ In 1893, the British Consul advised his government of the value of importing "young trees procured from Jaffa" to improve production in Australia and South Africa.(10)

All of this historical evidence from unimpeachable eyewitnesses destroys Israel's contention that it developed Palestine through its colonization. The legend that the Zionists have created, that they made "the desert bloom with roses," is totally without foundation. It is a ploy to gain donations from naive Jews throughout the world and to help extort economic aid from the American Congress. The economic achievements of Israel today are built totally on the capital base of lands, property and possessions usurped from the Palestinian Arabs.

Chapter 2: Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem

 

[Marc39]

In 1615 the English traveler George Sandys described Palestine as "a land that flows with milk and honey; in the midst as it were of the habitable world, and under a temperate clime; adorned with beautiful mountains and luxurious valleys; the rocks producing excellent waters; and no part empty of delight or profit."(4)

A British missionary who lived in Beirut and visited Palestine in 1859 described the southern coastal area as "a very ocean of wheat," and the British Consul in Jerusalem, James Finn, reported that "the fields would do credit to British farming."(5)

The German geographer Alexander Scholch concluded that between 1856 and 1882 "Palestine produced a relatively large agricultural surplus which was marketed in neighboring countries, such as Egypt and Lebanon, and increasingly exported to Europe. These exports included wheat, barley, dura, maise, sesame, olive oil, soap, oranges, vegetables and cotton. Among the European importers of Palestinian produce were France, England, Turkey, Greece, Italy and Malta."(6)

Lawrence Oliphant, who visited Palestine in 1887, wrote that Palestine's Valley of Esdraelon was "a huge green lake of waving wheat, with its village-crowned mounds rising from it like islands; and it presents one of the most striking pictures of luxuriant fertility which it is possible to conceive."(7) This Palestinian wheat had historically played an important part in international commerce. According to Paul Masson, a French economic historian, "wheat shipments from the Palestinian port of Acre had helped to save southern France from famine on numerous occasions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries."(8)

Agricultural techniques in Palestine, especially in citriculture, were among the most advanced in the world long before the first Zionist settlers came to its shores. In 1856, the American consul in Jerusalem, Henry Gillman, "outlined reasons why orange growers in Florida would find it advantageous to adopt Palestinian techniques of grafting directly onto lemon trees."^ In 1893, the British Consul advised his government of the value of importing "young trees procured from Jaffa" to improve production in Australia and South Africa.(10)

All of this historical evidence from unimpeachable eyewitnesses destroys Israel's contention that it developed Palestine through its colonization. The legend that the Zionists have created, that they made "the desert bloom with roses," is totally without foundation. It is a ploy to gain donations from naive Jews throughout the world and to help extort economic aid from the American Congress. The economic achievements of Israel today are built totally on the capital base of lands, property and possessions usurped from the Palestinian Arabs.

Chapter 2: Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem

Your quotes are bogus.

My quotes pertaining to the desolate condition of Palestine before Jewish immigration are from official British records.

To wit...

Interim Report on the Civil Administration of Palestine, JULY, 1920--JUNE, 1921, presented to the British Cabinet...

When General Allenby's army swept over Palestine, in a campaign as brilliant and decisive as any recorded in history, it occupied a country exhausted by war. The population had been depleted; the people of the towns were in severe distress; much cultivated land was left untilled; the stocks of cattle and horses had fallen to a low ebb; the woodlands, always scanty, had almost disappeared; orange groves had been ruined by lack of irrigation; commerce had long been at a standstill. A Military Administration was established to govern the country. For nearly two years it laboured, with great devotion, at its restoration. An administrative system, as efficient as the conditions allowed, was set up. The revenue authorised by the Turkish law was collected, and was spent on the needs of the country. A considerable sum, advanced by the Anglo-Egyptian Bank, was lent by the Government in small amounts to the agriculturists, and enabled them to purchase stock and seed, and partly to restore their cultivation. Philanthropic agencies in other countries came to the relief of the most necessitous. Commerce began to revive. It was encouraged by the new railway connection with Egypt, established during the campaign for purposes of military transport. It was assisted also by the construction, with the same object, of a net-work of good roads. The country showed all the signs of gradually returning life.

But the prospects of Palestine are not limited, on the economic side, merely to a return to the standard attained before the war. It has the possibilities of a far more prosperous future. Small in area--comparable in size to Belgium or Wales--its geographical position rendered it in ancient times, and may render it again, a centre of no small importance to the commercial traffic of the larger territories that surround it. Within the limits of a province, it offers the varieties of soil and climate of a continent. It is a country of mountain and plain, of desert and pleasant valleys, of lake and sea-board, of barren hills, desolate to the last degree of desolation, and of broad stretches of deep, fruitful soil. The rainfall of Jerusalem equals that of London. The water problem, over most of the country, is not a question of quantity, but of storage, of pumping and of distribution.

It is obvious to every passing traveller, and well-known to every European resident, that the country was before the War, and is now, undeveloped and under-populated. The methods of agriculture are, for the most part, primitive; the area of land now cultivated could yield a far greater product. There are in addition large cultivable areas that are left untilled. The summits and slopes of the hills are admirably suited to the growth of trees, but there are no forests. Miles of sand dunes that could be redeemed, are untouched, a danger, by their encroachment, to the neighbouring tillage. The Jordan and the Yarmuk offer an abundance of water-power; but it is unused. Some industries--fishing and the culture and manufacture of tobacco are examples--have been killed by Turkish laws; none have been encouraged; the markets of Palestine and of the neighbouring countries are supplied almost wholly from Europe. The seaborne commerce, such as it is, is loaded and discharged in the open roadsteads of Jaffa and Haifa: there are no harbours. The religious and historical associations that offer most powerful attractions to the whole of the Western, and to a large part of the Eastern world, have hitherto brought to Palestine but a fraction of the pilgrims and travellers, who, under better conditions, would flock to her sacred shrines and famous sites.

The country is under-populated because of this lack of development. There are now in the whole of Palestine hardly 700,000 people, a population much less than that of the province of Gallilee alone in the time of Christ.* (*See Sir George Adam Smith "Historical Geography of the Holy Land", Chap. 20.) Of these 235,000 live in the larger towns, 465,000 in the smaller towns and villages. Four-fifths of the whole population are Moslems. A small proportion of these are Bedouin Arabs; the remainder, although they speak Arabic and are termed Arabs, are largely of mixed race. Some 77,000 of the population are Christians, in large majority belonging to the Orthodox Church, and speaking Arabic. The minority are members of the Latin or of the Uniate Greek Catholic Church, or--a small number--are Protestants.

The Jewish element of the population numbers 76,000. Almost all have entered Palestine during the last 40 years. Prior to 1850 there were in the country only a handful of Jews. In the following 30 years a few hundreds came to Palestine. Most of them were animated by religious motives; they came to pray and to die in the Holy Land, and to be buried in its soil. After the persecutions in Russia forty years ago, the movement of the Jews to Palestine assumed larger proportions. Jewish agricultural colonies were founded. They developed the culture of oranges and gave importance to the Jaffa orange trade. They cultivated the vine, and manufactured and exported wine. They drained swamps. They planted eucalyptus trees. They practised, with modern methods, all the processes of agriculture. There are at the present time 64 of these settlements, large and small, with a population of some 15,000. Every traveller in Palestine who visits them is impressed by the contrast between these pleasant villages, with the beautiful stretches of prosperous cultivation about them and the primitive conditions of life and work by which they are surrounded.

The success of these agricultural colonies attracted the eager interest of the masses of the Jewish people scattered throughout the world. In many countries they were living under the pressure of laws or customs which cramped their capacities and thwarted their energies; they saw in Palestine the prospect of a home in which they might live at ease. Profoundly discontented, as numbers of them were, with a life of petty trade in crowded cities, they listened with ready ears to the call of a healthier and finer life as producers on the land. Some among them, agriculturists already, saw in Palestine the prospect of a soil not less fertile, and an environment far more free, than those to which they were accustomed. Everywhere great numbers of Jews, whose religion causes them to live, spiritually, largely in the past, began to take an active interest in those passages of their ritual, that dwelt, with constant emphasis, upon the connection of their race with Palestine; passages which they had hitherto read day by day and week by week, with the lax attention that is given to contingency that is possible but remote. Among a great proportion, at least, of the fourteen millions of Jews, who are dispersed in all the countries of the globe, the Zionist idea took hold. They found in it that larger and higher interest, outside and beyond the cares and concerns of daily life, which every man, who is not wholly materialist, must seek somewhere.

 

[Shogun]

Palestinians are the ultimate outsiders. Most Pestilians migrated from north Africa and Egypt, which is why so many Pallies are named al-Masri (The Egyptian) and Maghrebi, as in Maghreb, Africa.

Arabs, in general, migrated from the Hijaz in the 7th century.

You know shit about the subject matter.

...says the jew whose sole input reads like the sacking of Canaan 2010.

Talk about outsiders some more while importing more jews to stack the demographics, cock lips..

Hey, the Jews class up the otherwise dicrepid Middle East that the sand rats shit all over.

oh I KNOW, little chosen boy! you know, being SUPERIOR and all...

 

[P F Tinmore]

In 1615 the English traveler George Sandys described Palestine as "a land that flows with milk and honey; in the midst as it were of the habitable world, and under a temperate clime; adorned with beautiful mountains and luxurious valleys; the rocks producing excellent waters; and no part empty of delight or profit."(4)

A British missionary who lived in Beirut and visited Palestine in 1859 described the southern coastal area as "a very ocean of wheat," and the British Consul in Jerusalem, James Finn, reported that "the fields would do credit to British farming."(5)

The German geographer Alexander Scholch concluded that between 1856 and 1882 "Palestine produced a relatively large agricultural surplus which was marketed in neighboring countries, such as Egypt and Lebanon, and increasingly exported to Europe. These exports included wheat, barley, dura, maise, sesame, olive oil, soap, oranges, vegetables and cotton. Among the European importers of Palestinian produce were France, England, Turkey, Greece, Italy and Malta."(6)

Lawrence Oliphant, who visited Palestine in 1887, wrote that Palestine's Valley of Esdraelon was "a huge green lake of waving wheat, with its village-crowned mounds rising from it like islands; and it presents one of the most striking pictures of luxuriant fertility which it is possible to conceive."(7) This Palestinian wheat had historically played an important part in international commerce. According to Paul Masson, a French economic historian, "wheat shipments from the Palestinian port of Acre had helped to save southern France from famine on numerous occasions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries."(8)

Agricultural techniques in Palestine, especially in citriculture, were among the most advanced in the world long before the first Zionist settlers came to its shores. In 1856, the American consul in Jerusalem, Henry Gillman, "outlined reasons why orange growers in Florida would find it advantageous to adopt Palestinian techniques of grafting directly onto lemon trees."^ In 1893, the British Consul advised his government of the value of importing "young trees procured from Jaffa" to improve production in Australia and South Africa.(10)

All of this historical evidence from unimpeachable eyewitnesses destroys Israel's contention that it developed Palestine through its colonization. The legend that the Zionists have created, that they made "the desert bloom with roses," is totally without foundation. It is a ploy to gain donations from naive Jews throughout the world and to help extort economic aid from the American Congress. The economic achievements of Israel today are built totally on the capital base of lands, property and possessions usurped from the Palestinian Arabs.

Chapter 2: Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem

Your quotes are bogus.

My quotes pertaining to the desolate condition of Palestine before Jewish immigration are from official British records.

To wit...

Interim Report on the Civil Administration of Palestine, JULY, 1920--JUNE, 1921, presented to the British Cabinet...

When General Allenby's army swept over Palestine, in a campaign as brilliant and decisive as any recorded in history, it occupied a country exhausted by war. The population had been depleted; the people of the towns were in severe distress; much cultivated land was left untilled; the stocks of cattle and horses had fallen to a low ebb; the woodlands, always scanty, had almost disappeared; orange groves had been ruined by lack of irrigation; commerce had long been at a standstill. A Military Administration was established to govern the country. For nearly two years it laboured, with great devotion, at its restoration. An administrative system, as efficient as the conditions allowed, was set up. The revenue authorised by the Turkish law was collected, and was spent on the needs of the country. A considerable sum, advanced by the Anglo-Egyptian Bank, was lent by the Government in small amounts to the agriculturists, and enabled them to purchase stock and seed, and partly to restore their cultivation. Philanthropic agencies in other countries came to the relief of the most necessitous. Commerce began to revive. It was encouraged by the new railway connection with Egypt, established during the campaign for purposes of military transport. It was assisted also by the construction, with the same object, of a net-work of good roads. The country showed all the signs of gradually returning life.

But the prospects of Palestine are not limited, on the economic side, merely to a return to the standard attained before the war. It has the possibilities of a far more prosperous future. Small in area--comparable in size to Belgium or Wales--its geographical position rendered it in ancient times, and may render it again, a centre of no small importance to the commercial traffic of the larger territories that surround it. Within the limits of a province, it offers the varieties of soil and climate of a continent. It is a country of mountain and plain, of desert and pleasant valleys, of lake and sea-board, of barren hills, desolate to the last degree of desolation, and of broad stretches of deep, fruitful soil. The rainfall of Jerusalem equals that of London. The water problem, over most of the country, is not a question of quantity, but of storage, of pumping and of distribution.

It is obvious to every passing traveller, and well-known to every European resident, that the country was before the War, and is now, undeveloped and under-populated. The methods of agriculture are, for the most part, primitive; the area of land now cultivated could yield a far greater product. There are in addition large cultivable areas that are left untilled. The summits and slopes of the hills are admirably suited to the growth of trees, but there are no forests. Miles of sand dunes that could be redeemed, are untouched, a danger, by their encroachment, to the neighbouring tillage. The Jordan and the Yarmuk offer an abundance of water-power; but it is unused. Some industries--fishing and the culture and manufacture of tobacco are examples--have been killed by Turkish laws; none have been encouraged; the markets of Palestine and of the neighbouring countries are supplied almost wholly from Europe. The seaborne commerce, such as it is, is loaded and discharged in the open roadsteads of Jaffa and Haifa: there are no harbours. The religious and historical associations that offer most powerful attractions to the whole of the Western, and to a large part of the Eastern world, have hitherto brought to Palestine but a fraction of the pilgrims and travellers, who, under better conditions, would flock to her sacred shrines and famous sites.

The country is under-populated because of this lack of development. There are now in the whole of Palestine hardly 700,000 people, a population much less than that of the province of Gallilee alone in the time of Christ.* (*See Sir George Adam Smith "Historical Geography of the Holy Land", Chap. 20.) Of these 235,000 live in the larger towns, 465,000 in the smaller towns and villages. Four-fifths of the whole population are Moslems. A small proportion of these are Bedouin Arabs; the remainder, although they speak Arabic and are termed Arabs, are largely of mixed race. Some 77,000 of the population are Christians, in large majority belonging to the Orthodox Church, and speaking Arabic. The minority are members of the Latin or of the Uniate Greek Catholic Church, or--a small number--are Protestants.

The Jewish element of the population numbers 76,000. Almost all have entered Palestine during the last 40 years. Prior to 1850 there were in the country only a handful of Jews. In the following 30 years a few hundreds came to Palestine. Most of them were animated by religious motives; they came to pray and to die in the Holy Land, and to be buried in its soil. After the persecutions in Russia forty years ago, the movement of the Jews to Palestine assumed larger proportions. Jewish agricultural colonies were founded. They developed the culture of oranges and gave importance to the Jaffa orange trade. They cultivated the vine, and manufactured and exported wine. They drained swamps. They planted eucalyptus trees. They practised, with modern methods, all the processes of agriculture. There are at the present time 64 of these settlements, large and small, with a population of some 15,000. Every traveller in Palestine who visits them is impressed by the contrast between these pleasant villages, with the beautiful stretches of prosperous cultivation about them and the primitive conditions of life and work by which they are surrounded.

The success of these agricultural colonies attracted the eager interest of the masses of the Jewish people scattered throughout the world. In many countries they were living under the pressure of laws or customs which cramped their capacities and thwarted their energies; they saw in Palestine the prospect of a home in which they might live at ease. Profoundly discontented, as numbers of them were, with a life of petty trade in crowded cities, they listened with ready ears to the call of a healthier and finer life as producers on the land. Some among them, agriculturists already, saw in Palestine the prospect of a soil not less fertile, and an environment far more free, than those to which they were accustomed. Everywhere great numbers of Jews, whose religion causes them to live, spiritually, largely in the past, began to take an active interest in those passages of their ritual, that dwelt, with constant emphasis, upon the connection of their race with Palestine; passages which they had hitherto read day by day and week by week, with the lax attention that is given to contingency that is possible but remote. Among a great proportion, at least, of the fourteen millions of Jews, who are dispersed in all the countries of the globe, the Zionist idea took hold. They found in it that larger and higher interest, outside and beyond the cares and concerns of daily life, which every man, who is not wholly materialist, must seek somewhere.

That's nice.

Note: in the fourth picture, taken in 1937, there is a Palestinian flag on that building.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGBoGKPZlQE&feature=related]YouTube - Palestine before 1948[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjEBQ_bE7uA]YouTube - Palestine Pre-1947[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJXC046hzXQ&feature=related]YouTube - The Culture of Palestine[/ame]